Gwapo
26th June 2005, 06:15 PM
There’s no shortage of Christian activism, evangelism, politics, and criticism. In our secular times where humanistic and even nihilistic thinking is dominant, Christianity has been increasingly. It has left many a Christian flailing for Christ or, worse, compromising with the world.
But to me, this says more about the state of Christianity than it does about the state of the world.
We should have learned long ago to expect no better of the world, which never changes and rarely has anything of value to offer. "Stop loving this evil world and all that it offers you, for when you love the world, you show that you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only the lust for physical pleasure, the lust for everything we see, and pride in our possessions. These are not from the Father. They are from this evil world. And this world is fading away, along with everything it craves…" (1 John 2:15-17, NLT)
We hear more calls from within the faith for a "more relevant Christianity", an "energized Christianity", a "contemporary gospel message". One need not look hard for Christian Buddhism. Christian apologetics, based on reason, sound biblical principles and text, are giving way to things like theistic evolution, based on a compromise with prevalent scientific theory, and universalism, which isn’t Biblical at all and negates the whole point of Jesus’ life on earth.
None of this is new. It’s so old that it’s the main subject of Paul’s epistles and Christ’s messages to the seven churches of Asia Minor. In order, Ephesus had lost its love for God, Pergamum had stopped protecting doctrine and tolerated false teachings, Thyatira had stopped confronting sin, Sardis had become automatonic, and Laodicea had grown indifferent to the faith completely.
Notice the downward progression: loss of love for God, open to false teaching, de-emphasis of sin, ritualism, and abandonment.
Yet the two to escape warning were persecuted and evangelistic. Smyrna, the persecuted church, was given His encouragement, and Philadelphia, the evangelizing church, was given His assurance. Both were given His promise for reward.
We have a whole history of martyrs to demonstrate that persecution, mild or severe, is no excuse for compromising our faith. In fact, the early martyrs were setting such an example that the pagans, who were known to switch from one empty cult to another more than once in their lives, were so awed by the faith of the martyrs that they were increasingly accepting Christ. Bringing Christians to the Roman arena was actually backfiring.
And we have a whole history of evangelism to teach that preaching the Word in season and out of season is its own method for staying true to the faith. There’s no fear of losing the basics when you spend your life going over them and over them. What time have we for false doctrine and sin when we share the Word as often as we can? How better to keep our love for God than remembering what He did for us and welcoming others to Him and to receive His Spirit?
And how can we be at all effective in evangelism when we taint ourselves with our own weakness in faith? What chance does Christianity have if we don’t protect and live its message?
The true believer isn’t touched by the world. The martyrs past and present have been tortured and killed, but were they really touched? The world merely hates us and persecutes itself with its own wretchedness. But if anyone persecutes us, it’s careless Christians.
Christianity, at heart, is an inward faith. We pray to God in private. We need not even leave home to face His archenemy, which rules our world and infests our flesh, heart and minds. Our charity is to be secretive, even to ourselves (so as to not to tempt us to self-righteousness): "But when you give to someone, don't tell your left hand what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in secret, and your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you." Matthew 6:3-4, NLT). Nothing we do, say, or give even touches our account with God. His enemy isn’t a philosophy or a social condition. His enemy is sin, and all in the world is merely its effect.
When we were saved, we repented for our sins because they offended God in Heaven, not because they spawned all our problems here on earth, which we completely deserve.
Our task as Christians is to glorify God and share His message. That entails knowing His message and unceasing fellowship with Him. We must constantly examine our own standing with Him and put on the Christian’s armor and deal with the very thing He can’t have in His presence: our own sin. In other words, returning to the long-forgotten life of piety, which ritualism renders unnecessary, feel-good gospels don’t call for, compromise with the world makes impossible and activism hardly addresses.
We’ve no chance before God if we engage in the world’s games and hope to come out ahead where, ultimately, no one does. Our calling is to self-denial, taking up our cross, and following Christ (Luke 9:23). We’re hypocrites if we don’t deal with our own offense to God before helping non-believers to seek forgiveness for theirs.
We need to stop romanticizing the "good old days" which were at best brief, scattered, and normally came about to address the very same issues! We need to remember that Heaven is eternal and that the world is passing away. And to let John finish his quote from earlier, "…But if you do the will of God, you will live forever."
But to me, this says more about the state of Christianity than it does about the state of the world.
We should have learned long ago to expect no better of the world, which never changes and rarely has anything of value to offer. "Stop loving this evil world and all that it offers you, for when you love the world, you show that you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only the lust for physical pleasure, the lust for everything we see, and pride in our possessions. These are not from the Father. They are from this evil world. And this world is fading away, along with everything it craves…" (1 John 2:15-17, NLT)
We hear more calls from within the faith for a "more relevant Christianity", an "energized Christianity", a "contemporary gospel message". One need not look hard for Christian Buddhism. Christian apologetics, based on reason, sound biblical principles and text, are giving way to things like theistic evolution, based on a compromise with prevalent scientific theory, and universalism, which isn’t Biblical at all and negates the whole point of Jesus’ life on earth.
None of this is new. It’s so old that it’s the main subject of Paul’s epistles and Christ’s messages to the seven churches of Asia Minor. In order, Ephesus had lost its love for God, Pergamum had stopped protecting doctrine and tolerated false teachings, Thyatira had stopped confronting sin, Sardis had become automatonic, and Laodicea had grown indifferent to the faith completely.
Notice the downward progression: loss of love for God, open to false teaching, de-emphasis of sin, ritualism, and abandonment.
Yet the two to escape warning were persecuted and evangelistic. Smyrna, the persecuted church, was given His encouragement, and Philadelphia, the evangelizing church, was given His assurance. Both were given His promise for reward.
We have a whole history of martyrs to demonstrate that persecution, mild or severe, is no excuse for compromising our faith. In fact, the early martyrs were setting such an example that the pagans, who were known to switch from one empty cult to another more than once in their lives, were so awed by the faith of the martyrs that they were increasingly accepting Christ. Bringing Christians to the Roman arena was actually backfiring.
And we have a whole history of evangelism to teach that preaching the Word in season and out of season is its own method for staying true to the faith. There’s no fear of losing the basics when you spend your life going over them and over them. What time have we for false doctrine and sin when we share the Word as often as we can? How better to keep our love for God than remembering what He did for us and welcoming others to Him and to receive His Spirit?
And how can we be at all effective in evangelism when we taint ourselves with our own weakness in faith? What chance does Christianity have if we don’t protect and live its message?
The true believer isn’t touched by the world. The martyrs past and present have been tortured and killed, but were they really touched? The world merely hates us and persecutes itself with its own wretchedness. But if anyone persecutes us, it’s careless Christians.
Christianity, at heart, is an inward faith. We pray to God in private. We need not even leave home to face His archenemy, which rules our world and infests our flesh, heart and minds. Our charity is to be secretive, even to ourselves (so as to not to tempt us to self-righteousness): "But when you give to someone, don't tell your left hand what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in secret, and your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you." Matthew 6:3-4, NLT). Nothing we do, say, or give even touches our account with God. His enemy isn’t a philosophy or a social condition. His enemy is sin, and all in the world is merely its effect.
When we were saved, we repented for our sins because they offended God in Heaven, not because they spawned all our problems here on earth, which we completely deserve.
Our task as Christians is to glorify God and share His message. That entails knowing His message and unceasing fellowship with Him. We must constantly examine our own standing with Him and put on the Christian’s armor and deal with the very thing He can’t have in His presence: our own sin. In other words, returning to the long-forgotten life of piety, which ritualism renders unnecessary, feel-good gospels don’t call for, compromise with the world makes impossible and activism hardly addresses.
We’ve no chance before God if we engage in the world’s games and hope to come out ahead where, ultimately, no one does. Our calling is to self-denial, taking up our cross, and following Christ (Luke 9:23). We’re hypocrites if we don’t deal with our own offense to God before helping non-believers to seek forgiveness for theirs.
We need to stop romanticizing the "good old days" which were at best brief, scattered, and normally came about to address the very same issues! We need to remember that Heaven is eternal and that the world is passing away. And to let John finish his quote from earlier, "…But if you do the will of God, you will live forever."